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SaVe  the  Redwoods 


By 

John  JWuir 


Eeprinted  from  the  Sierra  Club  Bulletin,  Volume  XI,  Number  1, 
San  Francisco,  1920,  for  the  SAVE  THE  EEDWOODS  LEAGUE. 


IN  THE  REDWOOD  FOREST 

Photo  by  Herbert  W.  Gleason 


SAVE   THE   REDWOODS* 

JOHN    MUIR  f 

NOTE:  In  his  intimate  acquaintance  with  nature  John  Muir  recognized  1  //\ 
and  loved  everything  that  was  natural  and  honest,  but  his  interest  focused 
upon  the  things  which  represented  the  most  splendid  expressions  of  creative 
power.  Not  only  did  he  instinctively  select  for  close  personal  companionship 
the  elements  of  nature  that  had  most  to  give  for  him  but,  as  no  other  western 
naturalist  has  done,  he  set  forth  their  fullest  meaning  in  the  language  of  the 
people. 

Of  all  Muir's  special  interests  in  nature  it  is  probable  that  none  made 
to  him  a  stronger  appeal  than  the  giant  Sequoias  of  the  Sierra  and  Coast 
Eange  forests.  It  was  his  firm  conviction  that  they  represented  the  supremest 
examples  of  majesty  among  all  living  things,  and  his  journey  around  the 
earth  to  compare  the  Big  Trees  with  the  trees  of  the  world  left  him  with 
settled  conviction  regarding  the  correctness  of  this  view.  For  many  years 
he  gave  himself  to  the  protection  of  these  ''Kings  of  the  forest,  the  noblest 
of  a  noble  race."  At  this  time  of  national  movement  for  the  preservation  of 
these  forests  through  the  Save-the-Eedwoods  League,  it  is  particularly  fitting 
that  we  present  the  sentiments  written  years  ago,  in  support  of  just  such  a 
movement  by  the  friend  who  fought  so  hard,  so  faithfully,  and  so  long  in  this 
good  cause. — JOHN  CAMPBELL  MERRIAM,  Chairman,  Executive  Committee  of 
the  Save-the-Eedwoods  League. 

WE  are  often  told  that  the  world  is  going  from  bad  to 
worse,  sacrificing  everything  to  mammon.  But  this  right- 
eous uprising  in  defense  of  God's  trees  in  the  midst  of  exciting 
politics  and  wars  is  telling  a  different  story,  and  every  Sequoia, 
I  fancy,  has  heard  the  good  news  and  is  waving  its  branches 
for  joy.  The  wrongs  done  to  trees,  wrongs  of  every  sort,  are 
done  in  the  darkness  of  ignorance  and  unbelief,  for  when  light 
comes  the  heart  of  the  people  is  always  right.  Forty-seven 
years  ago  one  of  these  Calaveras  King  Sequoias  was  laboriously 
cut  down,  that  the  stump  might  be  had  for  a  dancing-floor. 
Another,  one  of  the  finest  in  the  grove,  more  than  three  hundred 
feet  high,  was  skinned  alive  to  a  height  of  one  hundred  and 

*  Found  among  Muir's  papers  after  his  death  and  now  published  for 
the  first  time. 


415017 


sixteen  feet  from  thV  'ground' "and  the  bark  sent  to  London  to 
show  how  fine  and  big  that  Calaveras  tree  was — as  sensible 
a  scheme  as  skinning  our  great  men  would  be  to  prove  their 
greatness.  This  grand  tree  is  of  course  dead,  a  ghastly  disfig- 
ured ruin,  but  it  still  stands  erect  and  holds  forth  its  majestic 
arms  as  if  alive  and  saying,  ' '  Forgive  them ;  they  know  not  what 
they  do. ' '  Now  some  millmen  want  to  cut  all  the  Calaveras  trees 
into  lumber  and  money.  But  we  have  found  a  better  use  for 
them.  No  doubt  these  trees  would  make  good  lumber  after 
passing  through  a  sawmill,  as  George  Washington  after  passing 
through  'the  hands  of  a  French  cook  would  have  made  good  food. 
But  both  for  Washington  and  the  tree  that  bears  his  name  higher 
uses  have  been  found. 

Could  one  of  these  Sequoia  kings  come  to  town  in  all  its  god- 
like majesty  so  as  to  be  strikingly  seen  and  allowed  to  plead  its 
own  cause,  there  would  never  again  be  any  lack  of  defenders. 
And  the  same  may  be  said  of  all  the  other  Sequoia  groves  and 
forests  of  the  Sierra  with  their  companions  and  the  noble  Sequoia 
sempervirens,  or  redwood,  of  the  coast  mountains. 

In  a  general  view  we  find  that  the  Sequoia  gigantea,  or  Big 
Tree,  is  distributed  in  a  widely  interrupted  belt  along  the  west 
flank  of  the  Sierra,  from  a  small  grove  on  the  middle  fork  of  the 
American  River  to  the  head  of  Deer  Creek,  a  distance  of  about 
two  hundred  and  sixty  miles,  at  an  elevation  of  about  five 
thousand  to  a  little  over  eight  thousand  feet  above  the  sea. 
From  the  American  River  grove  to  the  forest  on  Kings  River 
the  species  occurs  only  in  comparatively  small  isolated  patches 
or  groves  so  sparsely  distributed  along  the  belt  that  three  of  the 
gaps  in  it  are  from  forty  to  sixty  miles  wide.  From  Kings  River 
southward  the  Sequoia  is  not  restricted  to  mere  groves,  but  ex- 
tends across  the  broad  rugged  basins  of  the  Kaweah  and  Tule 
rivers  in  majestic  forests  a  distance  of  nearly  seventy  miles,  the 
continuity  of  this  portion  of  the  belt  being  but  slightly  broken 
save  by  the  deep  canons. 

In  these  noble  groves  and  forests  to  the  southward  of  the 
Calaveras  Grove  the  axe  and  saw  have  long  been  busy,  and 
thousands  of  the  finest  Sequoias  have  been  felled,  blasted  into 
manageable  dimensions,  and  sawed  into  lumber  by  methods  de- 
structive almost  beyond  belief,  while  fires  have  spread  still  wider 


and  more  lamentable  ruin.  In  the  course  of  my  explorations 
twenty-five  years  ago,  I  found  five  sawmills  located  on  or  near 
the  lower  margin  of  the  Sequoia  belt,  all  of  which  were  cutting 
more  or  less  Big  Tree  lumber,  which  looks  like  the  redwood  of 
the  coast,  and  was  sold  as  redwood.  One  of  the  smallest  of 
these  mills  in  the  season  of  1874  sawed  two  million  feet  of 
Sequoia  lumber.  Since  that  time  other  mills  have  been  built 
among  the  Sequoias,  notably  the  large  ones  on  Kings  River  and 
the  head  of  the  Fresno.  The  destruction  of  these  grand  trees 
is  still  going  on. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Calaveras  Grove  for  forty  years  has 
been  faithfully  protected  by  Mr.  Sperry,  and  with  the  excep- 
tion of  the  two  trees  mentioned  above  is  still  in  primeval  beauty. 
The  Tuolumne  and  Merced  groves  near  Yosemite,  the  Dinky 
Creek  grove,  those  of  the  General  Grant  National  Park  and  the 
Sequoia  National  Park,  with  several  outstanding  groves  that  are 
nameless  on  the  Kings,  Kaweah,  and  Tule  river  basins,  and 
included  in  the  Sierra  forest  reservation,  have  of  late  years  been 
partially  protected  by  the  Federal  Government ;  while  the  well- 
known  Mariposa  Grove  has  long  been  guarded  by  the  State. 

For  the  thousands  of  acres  of  Sequoia  forest  outside  of  the 
reservation  and  national  parks,  and  in  the  hands  of  lumbermen, 
no  help  is  in  sight.  Probably  more  than  three  times  as  many 
Sequoias  as  are  contained  in  the  whole  Calaveras  Grove  have 
been  cut  into  lumber  every  year  for  the  last  twenty-six  years 
without  let  or  hindrance,  and  with  scarce  a  word  of  protest  on 
the  part  of  the  public,  while  at  the  first  whisper  of  the  bonding 
of  the  Calaveras  Grove  to  lumbermen  most  everybody  rose  in 
alarm.  This  righteous  and  lively  indignation  on  the  part  of 
Californians  after  the  long  period  of  deathlike  apathy,  in  which 
they  have  witnessed  the  destruction  of  other  groves  unmoved, 
seems  strange  until  the  rapid  growth  that  right  public  opinion 
has  made  during  the  last  few  years  is  considered  and  the  peculiar 
interest  that  attaches  to  the  Calaveras  giants.  They  were  the 
first  discovered  and  are  best  known.  Thousands  of  travelers 
from  every  country  have  come  to  pay  them  tribute  of  admiration 
and  praise,  their  reputation  is  world-wide,  and  the  names  of 
great  men  have  long  been  associated  with  them — Washington, 
Humboldt,  Torrey  and  Gray,  Sir  Joseph  Hooker,  and  others. 


These  kings  of  the  forest,  the  noblest  of  a  noble  race,  rightly 
belong  to  the  world,  but  as  they  are  in  California  we  cannot 
escape  responsibility  as  their  guardians.  Fortunately  the  Amer- 
ican people  are  equal  to  this  trust,  or  any  other  that  may  arise, 
as  soon  as  they  see  it  and  understand  it. 

Any  fool  can  destroy  trees.  They  cannot  defend  themselves 
or  run  away.  And  few  destroyers  of  trees  ever  plant  any;  nor 
can  planting  avail  much  toward  restoring  our  grand  aboriginal 
giants.  It  took  more  than  three  thousand  years  to  make  some  of 
the  oldest  of  the  Sequoias,  trees  that  are  still  standing  in  perfect 
strength  and  beauty,  waving  and  singing  in  the  mighty  forests 
of  the  Sierra.  Through  all  the  eventful  centuries  since  Christ's 
time,  and  long  before  that,  God  has  cared  for  these  trees,  saved 
them  from  drought,  disease,  avalanches,  and  a  thousand  storms; 
but  he  cannot  save  them  from  sawmills  and  fools;  this  is  left  to 
the  American  people.  The  news  from  Washington  is  encourag- 
ing. On  March  third  [1905?]  the  House  passed  a  bill  providing 
for  the  Government  acquisition  of  the  Calaveras  giants.  The 
danger  these  Sequoias  have  been  in  will  do  good  far  beyond  the 
boundaries  of  the  Calaveras  Grove,  in  saving  other  groves  and 
forests,  and  quickening  interest  in  forest  affairs  in  general. 
While  the  iron  of  public  sentiment  is  hot  let  us  strike  hard.  In 
particular,  a  reservation  or  national  park  of  the  only  other  species 
of  Sequoia,  the  sempervirens,  or  redwood,  hardly  less  wonderful 
than  the  gigantea,  should  be  quickly  secured.  It  will  have  to  be 
acquired  by  gift  or  purchase,  for  the  Government  has  sold  every 
section  of  the  entire  redwood  belt  from  the  Oregon  boundary 
to  below  Santa  Cruz. 


MARGIN  OF  THE  REDWOOD  FOREST 

Photo  by  U.  S.  Forest  Service 


ONCE  GONE,  NOT  TO  BE  RESTORED  IN  OUR  TIME 

Photo  by  California   State  Forester 


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